A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

 

Science on Tap

Thursday, September 5

5:30 pm

Cosmo Tapas

4200 Central Ave SE

 

 

 

When is a “Law” not a Law? When it’s Moore’s

 

Joe Cecchi
Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
University of New Mexico

In 1965, Gordon Moore, who would go on to co-found Intel, published a paper in which he observed that from 1959 to 1965, the number of components in an integrated circuit (a.k.a. computer chip) doubled approximately every year. He further opined that it could go on “for at least 10 years[1].” Five years later, when this geometrical increase was still continuing, Cal Tech professor, Carver Mead, dubbed this forecast, “Moore’s Law.”

Predictions are always challenging, especially when they are about the future. But Moore’s Law has turned out to be essentially correct for more than 45 years! Was that destiny, or a self-fulfilling prophecy? And if it’s not a law, what is it and why does it matter? Has Moore’s Law become the de facto standard for all technological advancement as many would have us believe?

But don’t worry. Aside from a few gee whiz examples, this discussion will not be about numbers. Rather it will be about a world transformed by what is arguably the quintessence of technological achievement and unimaginably precise manufacturing.

---

[1] Gordon E. Moore, Cramming more components onto integrated circuits, Electronics, 38, April 19, 1965.

 

 

For the past 20 years, Joe Cecchi has been Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at UNM.  After spending 15 years on the “dark side,” (chair and dean), Joe is happy to return to teaching and research in semiconductor manufacturing and nanotechnology.  He has authored more than 100 research publications and is an inventor on 8 patents, but he is most proud of the 25 masters and doctoral students whose work he supervised.  Joe received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Knox College and his masters and doctorate in physics from Harvard University.  Later in life, he also earned an MBA from UNM.  Joe’s research career started about the same time as Moore’s Law, and it has certainly made for “living in interesting times.”

  

Science on Tap

 

Season 2 • The Fun Continues

 

Thursday, August 1, 2013

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Cosmo Tapas Restaurant

4200 Central Ave SE

 

 

Watching the watchmen: Can you "see" Internet surveillance?

This talk will explore a question in the science of information and computation, which is: can you see when somebody is performing surveillance on you online?  I'll start with some background about the global scene of Internet censorship and surveillance, explaining some of the techniques that we've used to document these two distinct, but related, phenomena.  Censorship is relatively easy to detect.  For example, if you try to post something sensitive on a social media site and your friends can't see the post, then it has probably been censored.  Surveillance is much harder to detect, however, and in most cases detection is virtually impossible.  I'll describe some on-going research at UNM about how to infer through scans what's going on deep in the bowels of the Internet, which may provide clues about different kinds of Internet surveillance infrastructures around the world.

 

Jed Crandall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico.  With the goal of protecting free and open communications online, Crandall's research group develops cutting-edge techniques for inferring what's really going on the Internet and in software that connects to the Internet.  This entails things like network scanning techniques, reverse-engineering of machine code, and automated Asian-language natural language processing.



Mark Your Calendars

for the next

Science on Tap

Thursday, May 2nd

5:30 pm

Cosmo Tapas

“The Inside Story: The Science of Blood Doping”

Lester Gyongyosi

Presbyterian Healthcare Services

 

His talk will address enhancing athletic performance as well as legitimate indications. Gyongyosi has more than 30 years experience as a hospital pharmacist.

 

 

 

The talk is part of  a series of informal talks on a wide range of topics in science and technology. They are co-sponsored by the UNM Nanoscience and Microsystems (NSMS) and the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering (ChNE) departments, Cosmos Tapas Restaurant in Nob Hill, and the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Admission is free, and you must be 21 years to attend.

The next Science on Tap is just around the corner!

"Distribution and abundances of water in the inner Solar System"

Francis McCubbin, Senior Research Scientist of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics, will speak on the distribution and abundances of water in the inner solar system at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 4. McCubbin will discuss the current thinking for how we use meteorites and remote observations to understand the amount of water within planetary bodies and the role of water in sustaining life on other planets. The planetary bodies will include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, The Moon, and asteroids.

 

 

Francis McCubbin, Senior Scientist, received a Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Dr. McCubbin received his award in a ceremony at the White House. McCubbin was recognized for studies of the geochemical role of water and other volatiles in extraterrestrial materials from the inner solar system. Francis was also interviewed recently by National Geographic about his article in Geology (which includes UNM co-authors Stephen Elardo, Kathleen Vander Kaaden and Charles Shearer) and NewScientist about an article which appeared in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1220715).

The talk is part of "Science on Tap," a series of informal talks on a wide range of topics in science and technology at Cosmo Tapas Restaurant, 4200 Central Ave. SE in Albuquerque. 

The talks are co-sponsored by the UNM Nanoscience and Microsystems (NSMS) and the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering (ChNE) departments, Cosmos Tapas Restaurant in Nob Hill, and the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Admission is free, and you must be 21 years to attend. Please visit scienceontapnm.blogspot.com for more information.

 

Countdown to the next Science on Tap

WAR and DEMOCRACY!

Mark Peceny

Dean, College of Arts and Sciencs

UNM

March 7, 2013

5:30 pm

Cosmo Tapas


Bring a friend or friends, make a night of it!

 



Political Science Professor Mark Peceny was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Peceny has a record for creating one of the most diverse faculties in the nation among departments of political science at similar institutions and is interested in building on last year’s successes in shared governance. He also has the goal to enhance teaching and research by developing a sustainable strategy for hiring and retaining tenure track faculty. Peceny joined UNM in 1992 and has served as chair of the Department of Political Science.

Peceny grad­u­ated from the Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan in 1984 with a BA in polit­i­cal sci­ence and earned his Ph.D. from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity in 1993. He joined the UNM fac­ulty as an assis­tant pro­fes­sor in 1992. He was pro­moted to full pro­fes­sor and named chair of the polit­i­cal sci­ence depart­ment in 2005. His research exam­ines democ­racy, dic­ta­tor­ship, and war with spe­cial atten­tion to the pro­mo­tion of democ­racy dur­ing U.S. mil­i­tary interventions.

His book, Democ­racy at the Point of Bay­o­nets, was pub­lished by Penn State Press and his research has appeared in the Amer­i­can Polit­i­cal Sci­ence Review, the flag­ship jour­nal of his dis­ci­pline and in Inter­na­tional Orga­ni­za­tion, the top jour­nal in the sub­field of inter­na­tional rela­tions. He has won UNM university-wide and college-wide teach­ing awards.

Welcome back! February Science on Tap!

See you next Thursday, February 7th for another
Science on Tap

 

Bring a friend or friends, make a night of it!

 

 

 

 

Of Valentines and Lupercalia: The Evolution of Human Sexuality

Steven Gangestad, PhD

 It’s broadly thought that humans evolved to engage in biparental care, facilitated by pair-bonding. Put simplistically, reproduction, and hence sex, in this view came to be associated with attachment to and “love” for partners. Yet even if so, humans evolved, in the past 5 million years from ancestors (similar to chimpanzees or other close relatives) that did not engage in biparental care or form close pair-bonds. How, in more precise terms, are we to understand the evolutionary transition that took place? What has changed, and what has maintained features shared by distant ancestors (and hence, close relatives)? This talk will concern a piece of this question. Specifically, the talk will present the thesis, and supporting data, that major modifications exist in both the extent and nature of women’s sexual interests outside of the fertile phase (outside of a several day period preceding ovulation). Women’s sexual interests during the fertile phase, by contrast, may possess features shared by distant ancestors. Outstanding questions for future research will also be discussed.   

Click here to see Dr. Gangestad's research website

See you next Thursday, December 6th for another
Science on Tap

 

Bring a friend or friends, make a night of it!

 

 

 

 

Colossal Failures in High-Tech Projects, And What We Can (or Should) Learn From Them

John H. Stichman, PhD

For centuries, and especially today, we have relied on complex systems designed by expert engineers.  With each passing year we come to rely more and more on such highly complex systems, such that not a day goes by without our way of life depending on them.  Yet, sometimes these systems fail in colossal, visible, and often tragic ways.  Think of the Space Shuttle, innovative bridges, the Chernobyl reactor, and others.  We will take a post-mortem tour of examples from both ancient and recent history and see what they have to tell us and what engineers and policy makers need to learn from them.

The speaker has presented this material to many graduating engineering students around the country, to practicing engineers, and to people in varied occupations.  The message to them has been that they not only must think in terms of “best practices,” but moreover should consider that they have an ethical imperative to take positive steps to avoid failures of the systems they create.

“Experience is what allows one to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”

 

Click here to view Dr. Stichman's biography